Antonio Espin, former president of the Association of Industries of Herrera, described 1996 as a “lost year” in economic terms, due to the stagnation of reforms in Congress and the lack of taking decisions on important matters for national development. He said that the Código Financiero y Monetario, the Ley General de Electricidad, the ruling of the approved Código Tributario will not be passed this year. He said that neither can the country expect to get a Ley de Promoción de Exportaciones, nor eliminate the bureaucratic procedures that limit production.
“The second round of the election will pass and the new government will get ready to govern, but the legislators will not do anything, and the economic and productive sectors will be tied.
“We hope that by 1997 somebody will responsibly make the decisions that the country needs.”
He said that the adverse effects of the economy, generated by the election, include the halting of foreign investment, pressure on the peso, speculation with dollars, and the paralyzing of principal productive sectors.
Many have commented that what is really holding back foreign investment is primarily the electricity shortage, the chaos in the judiciary, and the lack of approving the practical rules of the foreign investment law.